Why is the slow part never the building?
Ask anyone who builds websites what holds a job up. It is waiting for photos, the logo, or someone to confirm which suburbs they cover. When a build runs over, it is almost always because the form came back half-filled.
So here is the list. Do it before you talk to any builder and the job goes faster and comes out better. It is the same list I send before the form, which takes about 10 minutes once you have it ready.
1. Photos of your work
This is the big one. Ten to twenty phone photos of real jobs: finished work, before-and-afters, your van, your crew, you on site. Phone photos of a real job beat a stock photo of a model in spotless hi-vis, because customers can tell. Put them in one folder and stop at twenty. If you have none, photograph every job for the next fortnight.
2. Your business details
Trading name, ABN, licence numbers if your trade has them, the phone number customers should ring, and an email you actually read. Put them in one note on your phone.
3. The suburbs you actually cover
A list, not "greater Sydney". Twenty to forty suburbs is normal for a trade that travels. Someone in Frankston searching "plumber Frankston" finds a site that says Frankston. A site that says "Melbourne and surrounds" gets skipped.
4. The services you want more of
Not every job you have ever done. The jobs you want ringing about. Five to ten services in plain words: "blocked drains", not "drainage solutions".
5. Your logo, if you have one
Any format. If it only exists on the van, photograph the van. No logo is fine. Say so and keep going.
6. Your domain login, if you have a domain
If you already own yourname.com.au, find the registrar login. If a previous web person registered it, check it is in your name. If you do not have one yet, do not buy one. Have a name in mind and I will check it.
7. A few sentences about you
How long you have been going, who is in the business, what you do that the last bloke did not. Three or four sentences typed the way you would say them to a customer. Writing it properly is my job.
8. Prices, if you list them
If you list prices, write down the ones you are happy to see online, in a form that will not date: "service from $180". If you do not, say what you offer instead, like "free quotes" or "fixed price before I start".
What happens once I have the list?
An hour on a Sunday, mostly finding photos. Then fill in the form and I build your free homepage first. If you like it, $990 once covers the rest, live 3 business days after I have your form and photos. See how it works for the four steps.